"heather's the gutsy one...!!!"
Could life be any MORE amazing??!!!
These past 24 hours have been some of the most amazing 24 hours….talk about a total and COMPLETE turn around…I feel like life was just trying to prove some kind of lesson to me…and I love it!
Lesse…I’ve just been completely inundated with amazing craziness…
First I went to the supermarket and was kind of weirded out to see an entire frozen baby octopus in a bag…and they sell refrigerated pet food…I realized that I have been majorly craving cayenne pepper…so I ended up buying some (and felt kind of silly)…then I went back to the house and played a heated and somewhat dirty game of scrabble with some friends that led to fucking brilliant conversations and intense bonding…heard some rumors about me (which were interesting, and completely false…apparently everyone thought I was dating Luke, and thought that the reason he dropped out of Australia had something to do with me….definitely not true)
Then we went in search of gelato, and ended up going to the park and playing a hardcore game of frisbee …this tiny dog walked up to us with a small girl’s bathing suit in his mouth, no little girl to be found…had a good laugh…then, a bunch of the girls I was with started oogling this group of boys who were playing soccer…and someone had a camera, and tried to surreptitiously take pics of them so we all could get a better look at them…it was about the most hilarious and obvious thing ever..b/c we were cracking up, and then we all started doing dolphin impressions and must have looked like we were all on drugs, but we were just having a good time….
The boys, of course, noticed…and they started showing off for us, and then they took out their camera and took pictures of us….it was insanely bizarre…and all the girls with me were too embarrassed to actually go up to them and talk to them…so this went on for quite a while…and it was completely ridiculous…so I finally pulled them up off the ground and dragged them over to where the guys were sitting, so they’d get a chance to talk…and since everyone but me, apparently was too embarrassed b/c the guys were really good-looking, I ended up randomly starting up a conversation by saying “hi, so, we were taking pictures of you, and you were taking pictures of us, so we thought we’d come over and not be dumb and actually say hi”
…classic heather move. I figure, people are people..and if you want to talk to someone, you should do it, for goddsake…don’t just sit there giggling and taking pictures of them from 40 feet away. Sheesh. The girls were still embarrassed though, and since I didn’t care much, I decided to just talk to them like human beings…and thankfully I was able to be uber silly and break the ice for everyone…I figure making yourself look like a dork usually makes others feel like they can be THEIR true dorky selves too, and so it all works out for everyone! And it did…
we found out that they were all from Sweden…and, of course, my first response was “so, do you know what Swedish fish are?”…apparently, Swedish fish AREN’T from Sweden…they got really confused, and it was hilarious…especially when I explained to them that I had broken a tooth on one…so, I was just being a total goof with them, and then everyone got less nervous and finally started actually talking to each other and being more real.
this one boy, Stefan (who is 28 and studying graphic design here at Sydney) was holding a guitar…so I asked him to play us something…but he was missing a string and got kind of shy, saying that it wouldn’t sound good…I told him not to be silly and play something anyway, and he did, and it was beautiful! There were three other guys, Magnus (20), Bjorn (23), and Calle (21—the one the girls were oogling)….and they were all super chill and fun…We all got to talking, and then decided to meet up later to go to a bar (on a Monday night, with class starting at 7am the next morning…hmm)…So, we planned to meet back in the park at 10pm…
and walking back to our house, everyone was going “ohmigod, heather, I can’t believe you did that!!! Oh my GOD, you are sooo freeeking gutsy (oy)! How can you just talk to strangers like that?!!! Oh my god, you got us all a date with four gorgeous Swedish boys!!…how’d you do that?!” ….it was kind of ridiculous, and they were all squealing in high pitched voices which made everyone in the street look at us…but they kept saying “wow, we are in awe of you….teach us how to do what you do!”…RIDICULOUS!!! These girls make me laugh so so sooo hard. Love ‘em to death, and now we are all buddies…but they would not stop going on and on about it……and I had to assure them that I’m NOT gutsy…it made me laugh, having to explain to them that I’m not gutsy, that life is just short…and if you want to talk to someone, you should just do it…chances are, maybe they want to talk to you too…who knows.
So, we went back…they were all exited and got all spiffed up…I made some dinner (with TONNNNSSS of cayenne pepper!!! Yum!)..and had a bizarre encounter with one of the guys from italy that is staying at the house with us…his name is Massimo (how Italian can you get?!)…and he was embarrassed b/c he thinks his English is bad…I assured him that, hey, I was an ENGLISH major, and MY English is bad! …that made him less nervous, and we started chatting while we were both cooking..i managed to make a huge mess, which was fantastic! And incidentally I was cooking pasta! Muah……Then, out of the blue, I remembered that there is this little fantasy that I had about Italy that revolves around fireflies..and I had no idea if there were any fireflies in Italy…so I asked him, and managed to confuse him beyond belief…so I had to do an impression of a firefly…I flapped my arms and pointed to my butt and pretended that it was lighting up….he gave me this incredulous look, and then said “yes!! What you are, we have those!!!”…then he told me the name for firefly in Italian..and that made me really happy….my life is more complete now that I know Italy really DOES have fireflies! Wooo!
Anyway…so, later, we all walk back down to the park…now the ENTIRE group knows what’s going on, b/c the girls are gushing about how hot these guys are, and how gorgeous their accents are….and then they freak out, b/c they realize that we didn’t ask them their names, and they don’t know our’s..and oh my god, we are going to meet a group of nameless Swedes in a park in Australia, and oh my god, we are SOOOOO sketchy! ….then they were worried that we would be on time..and we couldn’t be on time, we had to be at least 3 minutes late…fashionably late, right…..hilarious!!!!!
So…we met up with zee Swedes, and had a blast at this bar that played an insane mix of music (including the hamster dance song!!!! How cool is that!!!) …Stefan and I had a fantastic conversation…talked about all kinds of things, the best we could….as he is still taking English classes…I find it amazing how you can open up to total strangers…that irrational feeling of trust you get with some ppl…I love it…makes it all worth it..! So…there were tons of us there at this bar, being silly and dancing around and talking and talking…everyone has decided that it is their mission to get heather to like beer by the end of the trip…funny..it’s going to be hard for them, though…I’m still a fan of the girly fruity drinks! I’d never survive in Australia on my own…hah!
Anyway…so, the girls were incredibly excited to be actually TALKING to these guys they had thought were completely intimidating and unapproachable (the lesson here is that EVERYONE thinks EVERYONE ELSE is intimidating!!!)…the boys were intimidated by us…figures! Anyway…alcohol, being the social lubricant, led everyone to extreme levels of giddiness…I got tons of drunk girls screaming “heather, you are SOOOOOO cool! Can I BE you??!!!” from across the room. Interesting experience, I must say….We must have come across as EXTREMELY annoying and loud Americans…but it’s all good. :-)
So, Stefan and I were playing it a bit more low-key, b/c we were really enjoying just talking to each other…we compared tattoos and life stories…talked about wrinkles and how exciting life is…talked about the kind ppl we had met when we traveled…all kinds of things..
I love how you can click with certain people…and it’s so interesting when that happens and you don’t really share a common language, /c it makes you realize how much we depend on language to communicate…and how sometimes language doesn’t matter all that much…b/c ppl, are, after all, ppl.
And it has always fascinated me to think about why I naturally gravitate towards some people…as an example…all the guys are interesting and fun (and make all my friends pant)…but for some reason, Stefan came across to me as the most genuine….and you can tell a lot about someone based on how they look at you…the ways ppl can look you in the eye, the ways you actually “see” somebody who is a complete stranger…and these are the ppl that I naturally feel comfortable around…being able to be yourself with someone, if even for just a moment, there is nothing at all like it. I also really admired the way that even though he was initially shy and embarrassed, he still played that 5 string guitar when I asked him to…and that is amazing, to me.
Also…he doesn’t come across as a player, b/c the other Swedes, though they are awesome guys that I have an easy time getting along with and chatting with, all seem to be aware of just how good looking they are…and it helps that they are being very obviously drooled over….but ppl that are trying to keep up a certain image that they feel they must project don’t interest or attract (platonically and otherwise, the rules are still the same) me in the way that ppl who are being genuine do. And you can TELL when someone is being genuine with you.
Ah…here’s a funny little anecdote from last night…
there was this HILARIOUSLY awkward moment when Stefan was trying to say how he had left his backpack somewhere….but he couldn’t think of the word, so he said “yeah, and I looked down, and then I realized that I didn’t know where my package was…”…needless to say, all us Americans with out dirty minds and slang cracked up…..he got red in the face and embarrassed b/c he thought we were laughing at him…but we assured him it was just that the word “package” can refer to something else…certainly not a backpack…so he asked me what it meant…and I was incapable of telling him (b/c I definitely was not drunk), and I was too embarrassed for him and for all of us…so Kerri finally chimed in and shouted “it’s a guy’s..(blank)” and points to her lap…Stefan then turned an amazing shade of red….and then finally was able to laugh at the whole situation…good times…
So, now we’re all going to go to Manley Island this weekend on the ferry and hang out…and Stefan is excited that we all live so close to each other, within walking distance…so we all might be going out later tonight, b/c we don’t have class tomorrow….
So, we all stayed up WAY too late….woke up bright and early this morning…we had an AMAZING 4 hours of class…went to this aboriginal college/resource center and our lecturers had me completely riveted….got me really excited and passionate…I stayed afterward to talk to one of the lecturers, and it was fantastic…he’s an amazingly dynamic personality and so passionate about his people..and he has a hilarious sense of humor and the BEST smiling eyes I have seen in a long long time…just looking at him made me want to smile…it’s contagious. Loved it!
So, I came out of class totally enthralled….and then, to top it all off, a few of us went to Bondi beach….and t’was brilliant!!!!! The guys from our program that came with us got all excited b/c there were all these topless women sunbathing, and so, they had us set up camp right smack dab in the middle of a whole posse of half naked women..and when we confronted them about it, they replied “well, duh, wasn’t it obvious?!”…precious moments. Our whole group is getting tight now…and it’s unbelievable…
And the beach was boo-tiful…the water was invigorating and had us all cussing/exclaiming a lot. :-) And there were all these little kids running around laughing, and it made me so so happy! Plus, when you walk barefoot on this sand, it makes the funniest noise (I kept on turning around and asking ppl if they heard seals, or if it was just me…b/c it sounds like seals barking…I kid you not!)
4 of us girls took a cab home, and on the way back fantasized about renting a house near the beach (b/c apparently the rent there is really low, go figure) and staying there for a while after the program ended…and then doing all of our traveling from there…ah, dreams.
Anyhoo…these past 24 hours have been a plethora of “wow, ain’t life funny” kind of moments…and my whole attitude from the other day has been COMPLETELY switched…we’re talking POLAR OPPOSITE!!!! I am suppppperrrr excited about all of it!!!! The people, the friends, the strangers, the accents. The genuine moments, the amazing aboriginal studies that get me all riled up and passionate, the sand that sounds like seals!!! Wooot!
And it cracks me up that now I have the reputation of being “THE GUTSY ONE”…and now, apparently, the mantra among my friends here is “life is short…no more chickenshit”…and they attribute that lovely little attitude to me…hah!
Too crazy…but you gotta love it..
Off to cook some more cayenne pepper!!! Mmboy!
These past 24 hours have been some of the most amazing 24 hours….talk about a total and COMPLETE turn around…I feel like life was just trying to prove some kind of lesson to me…and I love it!
Lesse…I’ve just been completely inundated with amazing craziness…
First I went to the supermarket and was kind of weirded out to see an entire frozen baby octopus in a bag…and they sell refrigerated pet food…I realized that I have been majorly craving cayenne pepper…so I ended up buying some (and felt kind of silly)…then I went back to the house and played a heated and somewhat dirty game of scrabble with some friends that led to fucking brilliant conversations and intense bonding…heard some rumors about me (which were interesting, and completely false…apparently everyone thought I was dating Luke, and thought that the reason he dropped out of Australia had something to do with me….definitely not true)
Then we went in search of gelato, and ended up going to the park and playing a hardcore game of frisbee …this tiny dog walked up to us with a small girl’s bathing suit in his mouth, no little girl to be found…had a good laugh…then, a bunch of the girls I was with started oogling this group of boys who were playing soccer…and someone had a camera, and tried to surreptitiously take pics of them so we all could get a better look at them…it was about the most hilarious and obvious thing ever..b/c we were cracking up, and then we all started doing dolphin impressions and must have looked like we were all on drugs, but we were just having a good time….
The boys, of course, noticed…and they started showing off for us, and then they took out their camera and took pictures of us….it was insanely bizarre…and all the girls with me were too embarrassed to actually go up to them and talk to them…so this went on for quite a while…and it was completely ridiculous…so I finally pulled them up off the ground and dragged them over to where the guys were sitting, so they’d get a chance to talk…and since everyone but me, apparently was too embarrassed b/c the guys were really good-looking, I ended up randomly starting up a conversation by saying “hi, so, we were taking pictures of you, and you were taking pictures of us, so we thought we’d come over and not be dumb and actually say hi”
…classic heather move. I figure, people are people..and if you want to talk to someone, you should do it, for goddsake…don’t just sit there giggling and taking pictures of them from 40 feet away. Sheesh. The girls were still embarrassed though, and since I didn’t care much, I decided to just talk to them like human beings…and thankfully I was able to be uber silly and break the ice for everyone…I figure making yourself look like a dork usually makes others feel like they can be THEIR true dorky selves too, and so it all works out for everyone! And it did…
we found out that they were all from Sweden…and, of course, my first response was “so, do you know what Swedish fish are?”…apparently, Swedish fish AREN’T from Sweden…they got really confused, and it was hilarious…especially when I explained to them that I had broken a tooth on one…so, I was just being a total goof with them, and then everyone got less nervous and finally started actually talking to each other and being more real.
this one boy, Stefan (who is 28 and studying graphic design here at Sydney) was holding a guitar…so I asked him to play us something…but he was missing a string and got kind of shy, saying that it wouldn’t sound good…I told him not to be silly and play something anyway, and he did, and it was beautiful! There were three other guys, Magnus (20), Bjorn (23), and Calle (21—the one the girls were oogling)….and they were all super chill and fun…We all got to talking, and then decided to meet up later to go to a bar (on a Monday night, with class starting at 7am the next morning…hmm)…So, we planned to meet back in the park at 10pm…
and walking back to our house, everyone was going “ohmigod, heather, I can’t believe you did that!!! Oh my GOD, you are sooo freeeking gutsy (oy)! How can you just talk to strangers like that?!!! Oh my god, you got us all a date with four gorgeous Swedish boys!!…how’d you do that?!” ….it was kind of ridiculous, and they were all squealing in high pitched voices which made everyone in the street look at us…but they kept saying “wow, we are in awe of you….teach us how to do what you do!”…RIDICULOUS!!! These girls make me laugh so so sooo hard. Love ‘em to death, and now we are all buddies…but they would not stop going on and on about it……and I had to assure them that I’m NOT gutsy…it made me laugh, having to explain to them that I’m not gutsy, that life is just short…and if you want to talk to someone, you should just do it…chances are, maybe they want to talk to you too…who knows.
So, we went back…they were all exited and got all spiffed up…I made some dinner (with TONNNNSSS of cayenne pepper!!! Yum!)..and had a bizarre encounter with one of the guys from italy that is staying at the house with us…his name is Massimo (how Italian can you get?!)…and he was embarrassed b/c he thinks his English is bad…I assured him that, hey, I was an ENGLISH major, and MY English is bad! …that made him less nervous, and we started chatting while we were both cooking..i managed to make a huge mess, which was fantastic! And incidentally I was cooking pasta! Muah……Then, out of the blue, I remembered that there is this little fantasy that I had about Italy that revolves around fireflies..and I had no idea if there were any fireflies in Italy…so I asked him, and managed to confuse him beyond belief…so I had to do an impression of a firefly…I flapped my arms and pointed to my butt and pretended that it was lighting up….he gave me this incredulous look, and then said “yes!! What you are, we have those!!!”…then he told me the name for firefly in Italian..and that made me really happy….my life is more complete now that I know Italy really DOES have fireflies! Wooo!
Anyway…so, later, we all walk back down to the park…now the ENTIRE group knows what’s going on, b/c the girls are gushing about how hot these guys are, and how gorgeous their accents are….and then they freak out, b/c they realize that we didn’t ask them their names, and they don’t know our’s..and oh my god, we are going to meet a group of nameless Swedes in a park in Australia, and oh my god, we are SOOOOO sketchy! ….then they were worried that we would be on time..and we couldn’t be on time, we had to be at least 3 minutes late…fashionably late, right…..hilarious!!!!!
So…we met up with zee Swedes, and had a blast at this bar that played an insane mix of music (including the hamster dance song!!!! How cool is that!!!) …Stefan and I had a fantastic conversation…talked about all kinds of things, the best we could….as he is still taking English classes…I find it amazing how you can open up to total strangers…that irrational feeling of trust you get with some ppl…I love it…makes it all worth it..! So…there were tons of us there at this bar, being silly and dancing around and talking and talking…everyone has decided that it is their mission to get heather to like beer by the end of the trip…funny..it’s going to be hard for them, though…I’m still a fan of the girly fruity drinks! I’d never survive in Australia on my own…hah!
Anyway…so, the girls were incredibly excited to be actually TALKING to these guys they had thought were completely intimidating and unapproachable (the lesson here is that EVERYONE thinks EVERYONE ELSE is intimidating!!!)…the boys were intimidated by us…figures! Anyway…alcohol, being the social lubricant, led everyone to extreme levels of giddiness…I got tons of drunk girls screaming “heather, you are SOOOOOO cool! Can I BE you??!!!” from across the room. Interesting experience, I must say….We must have come across as EXTREMELY annoying and loud Americans…but it’s all good. :-)
So, Stefan and I were playing it a bit more low-key, b/c we were really enjoying just talking to each other…we compared tattoos and life stories…talked about wrinkles and how exciting life is…talked about the kind ppl we had met when we traveled…all kinds of things..
I love how you can click with certain people…and it’s so interesting when that happens and you don’t really share a common language, /c it makes you realize how much we depend on language to communicate…and how sometimes language doesn’t matter all that much…b/c ppl, are, after all, ppl.
And it has always fascinated me to think about why I naturally gravitate towards some people…as an example…all the guys are interesting and fun (and make all my friends pant)…but for some reason, Stefan came across to me as the most genuine….and you can tell a lot about someone based on how they look at you…the ways ppl can look you in the eye, the ways you actually “see” somebody who is a complete stranger…and these are the ppl that I naturally feel comfortable around…being able to be yourself with someone, if even for just a moment, there is nothing at all like it. I also really admired the way that even though he was initially shy and embarrassed, he still played that 5 string guitar when I asked him to…and that is amazing, to me.
Also…he doesn’t come across as a player, b/c the other Swedes, though they are awesome guys that I have an easy time getting along with and chatting with, all seem to be aware of just how good looking they are…and it helps that they are being very obviously drooled over….but ppl that are trying to keep up a certain image that they feel they must project don’t interest or attract (platonically and otherwise, the rules are still the same) me in the way that ppl who are being genuine do. And you can TELL when someone is being genuine with you.
Ah…here’s a funny little anecdote from last night…
there was this HILARIOUSLY awkward moment when Stefan was trying to say how he had left his backpack somewhere….but he couldn’t think of the word, so he said “yeah, and I looked down, and then I realized that I didn’t know where my package was…”…needless to say, all us Americans with out dirty minds and slang cracked up…..he got red in the face and embarrassed b/c he thought we were laughing at him…but we assured him it was just that the word “package” can refer to something else…certainly not a backpack…so he asked me what it meant…and I was incapable of telling him (b/c I definitely was not drunk), and I was too embarrassed for him and for all of us…so Kerri finally chimed in and shouted “it’s a guy’s..(blank)” and points to her lap…Stefan then turned an amazing shade of red….and then finally was able to laugh at the whole situation…good times…
So, now we’re all going to go to Manley Island this weekend on the ferry and hang out…and Stefan is excited that we all live so close to each other, within walking distance…so we all might be going out later tonight, b/c we don’t have class tomorrow….
So, we all stayed up WAY too late….woke up bright and early this morning…we had an AMAZING 4 hours of class…went to this aboriginal college/resource center and our lecturers had me completely riveted….got me really excited and passionate…I stayed afterward to talk to one of the lecturers, and it was fantastic…he’s an amazingly dynamic personality and so passionate about his people..and he has a hilarious sense of humor and the BEST smiling eyes I have seen in a long long time…just looking at him made me want to smile…it’s contagious. Loved it!
So, I came out of class totally enthralled….and then, to top it all off, a few of us went to Bondi beach….and t’was brilliant!!!!! The guys from our program that came with us got all excited b/c there were all these topless women sunbathing, and so, they had us set up camp right smack dab in the middle of a whole posse of half naked women..and when we confronted them about it, they replied “well, duh, wasn’t it obvious?!”…precious moments. Our whole group is getting tight now…and it’s unbelievable…
And the beach was boo-tiful…the water was invigorating and had us all cussing/exclaiming a lot. :-) And there were all these little kids running around laughing, and it made me so so happy! Plus, when you walk barefoot on this sand, it makes the funniest noise (I kept on turning around and asking ppl if they heard seals, or if it was just me…b/c it sounds like seals barking…I kid you not!)
4 of us girls took a cab home, and on the way back fantasized about renting a house near the beach (b/c apparently the rent there is really low, go figure) and staying there for a while after the program ended…and then doing all of our traveling from there…ah, dreams.
Anyhoo…these past 24 hours have been a plethora of “wow, ain’t life funny” kind of moments…and my whole attitude from the other day has been COMPLETELY switched…we’re talking POLAR OPPOSITE!!!! I am suppppperrrr excited about all of it!!!! The people, the friends, the strangers, the accents. The genuine moments, the amazing aboriginal studies that get me all riled up and passionate, the sand that sounds like seals!!! Wooot!
And it cracks me up that now I have the reputation of being “THE GUTSY ONE”…and now, apparently, the mantra among my friends here is “life is short…no more chickenshit”…and they attribute that lovely little attitude to me…hah!
Too crazy…but you gotta love it..
Off to cook some more cayenne pepper!!! Mmboy!
posted by heather at 11:48 PM
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